My Digital Journal
Reflective Journal Entry #1: Building a Foundation for Technology Coaching
Welcome to my reflective journal as I process through my experiences as a Technology Coach. I am currently in my final course for completion of a year-long Master’s degree program in Instructional Technology with Grand Canyon University. This week’s challenge is to research the technology landscape for my district, assessing policies, strengths, needs, equipment availability, and more. Throughout this program, I have been able to apply much of my learning to my classroom experience, as I am a Digital Art, Yearbook, and Drama teacher. I use technology every single day, and as a result of a year’s worth of homework assignments, I have had the added benefit of testing tools in real-time with real students. I’ve also had the opportunity to work with several mentors and mentees as I’ve honed my own technology coaching skills. It’s been extremely fulfilling professionally, and I’ve developed many supportive coworking relationships as a result. I’ve learned that effective technology coaching begins with understanding the school environment, building collaborative relationships with the staff, and establishing a clear coaching philosophy to help guide my process. This first reflection will cover those relationships, my technology coaching vision, and the research I’ve performed as an assessment of the technology landscape for Atascadero Unified School District.
The Importance of Strong Coaching Relationships
I’ve learned that having an effective and experienced mentor has been the true key to higher learning for me as an educator. I was blessed to be assigned Ryan Allison, the only other technology teacher on campus, as my mentor when I started at Atascadero Middle School in the 2024-25 school year. For the past two years, I’ve been able to run so many different sticky situations past him and have received countless helpful pieces of advice regarding parents, behavior issues in class, content mastery, new tech tools, you name it. I’ve learned that an effective mentor must be an experienced technology user themselves. Ryan Allison teaches computer coding to our 6th-8th grade students, mostly because he taught himself and enjoys it. A good mentor is also a positive instructional leader. Ryan has spent many years in leadership roles on campus, including being the Electives Department Head, as well as an ever-willing helper to all on campus. I’ve also learned that a mentor needs to be open-minded, willing to share their own successes and failures, a good communicator, very encouraging, and can give constructive feedback. Ryan has modeled all of these qualities in his time as my mentor for this program, and I am very grateful to have had his expertise and oversight.
I realized that having a high-quality mentee experience comes down to determining what both parties can bring to the table and thereby positively influence each other, rather than a coach/mentee dynamic. My coaching philosophy includes enjoying a collaborative, mutually beneficial coaching experience. The best mentee experiences involve both members having a growth mindset and a willingness to receive feedback. Both partners are student-focused, willing to experiment and learn from their experiences. Both members should have the capability to be reflective and, when something fails, be willing to be honest about those challenges, then pivot and try again from a collaborative, beneficial perspective. My mentee Holly Hamilton has been an absolute joy to collaborate with and learn from. She has demonstrated a willingness to explore new instructional technologies despite extreme time constraints. I have learned so much from observing her work in the classroom and how she connects with students while teaching all subjects across multiple grade levels. She is a jack of all trades, and I have benefited greatly from our time together.
As mentioned before, my preferred coaching style is collaboration over an expert model, connection as a means to growth, and goal-setting together. I love co-planning, co-teaching, connecting with the students in the mentee’s classroom, and modeling lessons and tools for my mentee. I then make sure to set aside time for reflection afterward. We discuss strengths and weaknesses after the given lesson or tool implementation, then we iterate, review, pivot, and improve on our practice in a collaborative approach. This builds mutual trust and respect and also increases the mentee teacher’s confidence in the process.
As I’ve worked through this course load, it has become clear to me that technology coaching truly depends on quality relationships. I will never be successful as a technology coach if I don’t take the time to connect with, learn about, and build mutual trust with a mentee. Trust encourages innovation, bravery, and the willingness to try new things. Open communication leads to authenticity. Connecting with educators in different areas of teaching has greatly helped to broaden my coaching experience. It really comes down to seeing the potential in any mentee, connecting with them to find mutual understanding, and then encouraging them to grow for their benefit, my benefit, and ultimately our school population’s benefit.
My Technology Vision and Mission
As a result of these experiences, I’ve developed my own vision and mission as I move forward from practice to implementation in my coaching journey. My vision statement moving forward is that I will empower educators to confidently integrate technology that inspires creativity, increases student engagement, and prepares all learners for success in a rapidly evolving digital world. This vision supports my desire to coach with a shared curiosity and creativity so that our students are ready to learn to innovate and improve their technology skills from our example as educators.
My mission statement is as follows: As a technology coach, I will partner with educators through collaboration, professional learning, and instructional support to promote purposeful technology integration that fosters lifelong learning for both educators and the students they support. This further affirms my desire to be a collaborative coach instead of a director or expert, that I am committed to continued professional growth myself, and that my goal will be to have a student-centered technology use focus.
My vision and mission statement connect with the ISTE Coaching Standard 4.1 Change Agent, as I take on the challenge of being a visionary leader for technology on my campus moving forward. My goal this next year on the Instructional Leadership Team will be to inspire innovation, build teacher capacity for new learning, to encourage responsible technology use, support equitable access to technology, and to lead the charge for necessary instructional change so our students are ready for the world by the time they graduate from high school from the Atascadero Unified School District. Technology coaches serve as change agents by helping educators move beyond simply using new technology for novelty toward transforming student learning, and I hope to see big growth on my campus for the 2026-27 school year at Atascadero Middle School.
Technology Landscape Assessment Reflection
Conducting a Technology Landscape Assessment gave me a much deeper appreciation for the resources already available within Atascadero Unified School District and helped me recognize where I can make the greatest impact as a technology coach. While I have worked within the district for the past four years and use technology extensively in my own classroom, taking the time to intentionally research the district's mission, strategic priorities, infrastructure, and available technology resources allowed me to step back and see the bigger picture. Instead of viewing technology solely through the lens of my own classroom, I began looking at it from the perspective of a coach who will be supporting an entire staff with varying levels of confidence and experience.
One thing that stood out to me was how strongly the district values innovation, collaboration, equity, and preparing students for success beyond graduation. Although AUSD does not publish a stand-alone technology plan, I found technology woven throughout the district's Local Control and Accountability Plan. This reinforced something I've observed firsthand: technology is not treated as a separate initiative but rather as a tool for improving teaching and learning across every content area. That realization challenged me to think beyond introducing "new apps" and instead focus on helping teachers use technology with intentionality and purpose.
I was also reminded of just how fortunate our staff is to have access to a strong technology infrastructure. At Atascadero Middle School, our students have access to Chromebooks, Google Workspace for Education, and numerous instructional platforms that support collaboration, creativity, and formative assessment. As a Digital Art teacher, I often work with tools like Canva, Adobe Creative Cloud, and Procreate, so it's easy for me to forget that many teachers are already doing amazing work with different technology tools in their own classrooms. At the same time, I noticed there are opportunities to help teachers expand beyond using technology for basic classroom management or content delivery toward experiences that encourage greater student creativity, collaboration, critical thinking, and authentic problem solving.
Perhaps the biggest takeaway from this assessment is that successful technology coaching begins with listening before leading. Rather than assuming I know what teachers need, I now have a much clearer understanding of why gathering input through a needs assessment survey is so important. Every teacher is on a different point in their technology journey. Some may need help learning the basics of Google Classroom or digital organization, while others may be ready to explore artificial intelligence, project-based learning, or more advanced student-centered instructional strategies. My role is not to move everyone to the same destination at the same pace, but to meet teachers where they are and help them take meaningful next steps.
Moving forward, I plan to use the findings from this assessment as the foundation for collaborating with my mentor to design a year-long professional development plan that reflects both district priorities and the actual needs of our staff. Rather than offering one-size-fits-all workshops, I hope to create differentiated learning opportunities that include whole-staff professional development, small-group collaboration, classroom modeling, and individualized coaching. I also plan to share these findings with my mentees so that our coaching conversations are grounded in the larger goals of our school while still focusing on their unique classroom challenges and professional goals.
Completing this assessment has helped me feel more prepared for the work ahead. It has shifted my thinking from simply being someone who enjoys using technology to someone who can thoughtfully lead others through change. More importantly, it reminded me that technology coaching is never really about the technology itself—it is about empowering teachers, improving instruction, and creating meaningful learning experiences that prepare students for their future.
